Beatriz Williams describes her role in the book this way, "Elfriede forms the moral backbone of 'The Golden Hour,' and her journey is that of women everywhere.

When Rowan wakes up one morning and finds no Nina, he realizes that the worst has happened: Nina has gone back to the past, and may choose to stay there forever. I was fortunate enough to get a copy of this book for that article and wanted to talk a little about it here, too. But as she infiltrates the Duke and Duchess’s social circle, and the powerful cabal that controls the islands’ political and financial affairs, she uncovers evidence that beneath the glister of Wallis and Edward’s marriage lies an ugly—and even treasonous—reality. Lulu is sent to Nassau, Bahamas to cover a story for NY magazine and to get the scope on the Duke and Duchess.And how about that hypocritical relationship that Lulu demonstrated to Wallis for SO LONG and so entirely the opposite of any sincerity.

The portrait of wartime Bermuda and the awful Windsors, observed and reported by Lulu, is original and fascinating. Plus, the little known details of Wallis Simpson and her abdicated king—whom fans of The Crown will remember—thoroughly intrigued me.The duke—as governor of this island paradise with a dark side—and the duchess are portrayed as sometimes helping, but often contributing to, its problems of social inequality, racial tension, and corruption; they could also be complicit in the murder of gold mine owner Harry Oakes, and there are whispers of their Nazi sympathies. Sebastian lives on a grass-fed cattle farm outside of town, and Manuel finds solace in the open fields and in the antics of the newborn calf Sebastian is hand-raising. This book is a fascinating look at that time in history and I enjoyed this insider’s peek into this world. There was a lot of mystery in this book and a lot of the story was centred around Edward and Mrs Simpson which I found fascinating. Better known as Prince Edward and Wallis Simpson, the couple were essentially banished to the Caribbean after he abdicated the throne, and their friendship with Hitler became not only embarrassing, but also problematic to Great Britain.

But as I worked, I found myself having to limit my book list to the past couple of years as a way to begin to pare down the long list of books I was interested in considering. While the secondary Elfriede plot adds interesting complications to the historical puzzle, it doesn't have quite as much verve.As someone who suffered from postpartum depression three times, I appreciated that element of the story since I think it’s not touched on often enough, and I related to Elfriede. The instant New York Times bestseller brings Second World War-era Nassau to incandescent life in this brilliantly original epic of espionage and human courage inside the court of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. This piece of historical fiction, using the backdrop of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor as residents of the Bahamian Government House, is superb. The Golden Hour by Beatriz Williams is one of those books that takes a long time to read, but one that you want to savor forever. This book is gorgeously illustrated in Niki Smith's characteristic thin clean lines, with soft painterly backgrounds filling in the gold, brown, green and grey of Kansas.

Unfortunately, the part of the story I expected to enjoy the most, anything involving the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, was actually the weakest part. What more intriguing backdrop for their romance than a wartime Caribbean paradise, a colonial playground for kingpins of ill-gotten empires? This is an important idea to address, as it examines the difficulties imposed upon working-class people that are additional barriers towards mental health, recovery and support. I would recommend this book to any historical fiction fans out there, but I would also recommend it to everyone else aw well! However, hisWilliams slips back and forth from location to location, from 1943 to 1941 and farther back to the turn of the century, raising the suspense bar higher and higher as we dive deeper into the lives of two memorable female characters. Part of their lives involve politics, war, betrayal and even a murder, none of which either woman sought or was intimately entangled with. There are spies, Nazis, illegitimate siblings, mental illness, and dysfunctional family relationships.